The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-05-12

present time may be excepted. 10
show the extent to which farming as a
business was studied and practlceo
among the Romans, 1 quote a few
maxims which obtained among them
and have come down to us through
their agricultural writer's:
"Our ancestry" says Cato, regarded
it as a grand point of husbandry MOI
to have too much land in one farm,
for they considered that more profit
come by holding little, and tilllng 1t
we'll" The orator, Curins said, "he
was not to be counted a good citizen,
but rather a dangerous man to the
State, who could not content himself
with seven acres Of land" The Roman
acre, or jugerum, was one-third less
than ours, and hence the law allowed
the citizen to hold only about five
acres. Virgil says, "The farmer may
praise large estates, but let him cult
vate a small one" Pliny says, "Men
should plant while young, and not
build until their fields r planted !;
and even then they should take time
to consider, and not be in too great
haste" This same writer informs us
that four hundred stalks of wheat, all
grown from one seed, we're sent to the
Emperor Augustus and at another
time $40 stalks from mi seed were
sent to the Emperor Nero, from By
zaciarre in Africa, accompanied by
the statement that the soil when dry
was so stiff that the strongest oxen
could not plough it, but after a rain, |
have seen it opened by a plough
drawn by a wretched ass or n side
and an old woman on the other" They
paid the closest attention to the breed
ing of stock. One writer states the
good points of a milk COW to be "a
tall make, long, with very large abdo-
men, very broad head eyes black and
open; horns graceful, smooth and
black ears hairy; jaws straight
dewlap very large; hoofs and legs
moderate" He states further that,
"After oxen get through ploughing,
and come home heated and tired, they
must have a little wine poured down
their threats, and, after being fed a
little, be led out to drink and if they
will not drink, the boy must whistle
to make them drink"
It is but proper for me to remark in
this connection that the excellence to
which the Romans attained in farming
vas acquired during the early periods
of their history. For later, when
Rome had added, by military conquest,
large territory to her domain, and
when her citizens were allowed, by
law, to hold 500 acres Of land instead
of seven, and when her fields were
cultivated by bondsmen, made of
prisoners taken in war, thus placing a
stigma upon labor, agriculture rapidly
deteriorated.
And through the long night, of the
middle ages, that succeeded the over
throw of the Roman empire, during
which the lands were held by feudal
lords, and cultivated by serfs as firmly
fixed to the farm as the trees that
we're rooted in the soil, agriculture
languished. It is only within com
paratively recent times that an ad-
vanced agriculture has revived and
this revival has occurred only in those
countries in which there is a dense
population, and in which the labors of
the husbandman are performed by in
telligent farmers, and in which farm
ing is pursued as a business, upon
business principles.
Thus a careful study of the history
of agriculture, from the Edenic period
to the present, discloses the important
truth that a high state of farming is
p~redicated upon the following con
ditions LIST. Free labor. I'd. A dense
population. Sd. The application of
business principles to farm operations.
These conditions concur to a remark
able extent in England, France and
Germany, of today. And hence, these
countries have surpassed the world,
both ancient and modern, in agricul.
tural science and literature. They
have splendidly equipped agricultural
colleges, where their young men are
taught the theory and practice of farm
ing, as a life business, just as law and
medicine are taught in their respective
schools.
In this magnificent country of ours,
destined, at an early day, to be the
greatest the world has ever seen, these
conditions are rapidly maturing